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eyeOS

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eyeOS
Stable release
1.5.0.5 (19.02.2008)
TypeWeb application
LicenseAGPL
WebsiteOfficial eyeOS Website

eyeOS is an open source Web Operating System created with PHP and using AJAX to communicate the server with a DHTML interface that acts as frontend in the client browser.

eyeOS can be described as an Open Source Platform (licensed under the AGPL license) designed to hold a wide variety of Web Applications over it. eyeOS was thought as a Web Operating System, where everything inside it can be accessed from everywhere in a Network[1]. The product, which can be downloaded from SourceForge [2], does include a Desktop and 67 applications and system utilities [3], and has an official Applications Community called eyeOS-Apps [4] that is hosted and provided by the OpenDesktop network[5].

For developers, eyeOS provides a full set of libraries and functions, also called eyeOS Toolkit, to quickly and easily develop new eyeOS applications. Thanks to the integrated ports-based eyeSoft system, anyone can create its own repository for eyeOS and distribute its eyeOS Applications automatically to its users. [6]

The idea behind eyeOS is to provide a full web based desktop, which can be accessed from everywhere, with any Internet-capable device.[7]

History

The first publicly available eyeOS version was released at August 1, 2005 on, as eyeOS 0.6.0. At the time, it greatly participated in the definition of the web operating system concept. Quickly, a community of developers all around the world took part to the project and helped improving it by translating, testing and developing it.

After two years of development, the eyeOS Team published eyeOS 1.0[8] (at June 4, 2007). Compared to previous versions, eyeOS 1.0 introduced a complete reorganization of the code and some new web technologies, like eyeSoft, a ports-based web software installation system. Moreover, eyeOS also included the eyeOS Toolkit, a set of libraries allowing easy and fast development of new web Applications.[9]

With the release of eyeOS 1.1 on July 2, 2007, eyeOS changed its license and migrated from GNU GPL Version 2 to Version 3.

Version 1.2 was released just a few months after the 1.1 version and integrated a full compatibility with Microsoft Word files.

The current version, eyeOS 1.5 Gala, was released on January 15 2008. This version is the first to support both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org file formats for documents, presentations and spreadsheets. It also has the ability to import and export documents in both formats using server side scripting.[10]

eyeOS 1.6 is planned for the end of April 2008 and will include many improvements such as synchronization with local computer, drag and drop, a mobile version and more. [11]

Awards

  • 2007 - Received the Softpedia's Pick award. [12]
  • 2007 - eyeOS won the Yahoo! Spain Web Revelation award in the Technology category.[13][14]
  • 2008 - eyeOS is currently finalist for the Webware 100 awards by CNET, under the "Browsing" category. Winners will be announced in April 22, 2008. [15]

Community

eyeOS community is formed with the eyeOS Forums [16], which arrived at 10.000 members at April 4th, 2008, the eyeOS Wiki[17] and the eyeOS Application Communities, available at eyeOS-Apps website [18] and Softpedia [19].

Structure and API

eyeOS is written in mostly PHP, javascript and XML.

Each core part of the desktop is its own application, using javascript to send server commands as the user interacts. As actions are performed using ajax (such as launching an application), it sends event information to the server. The server then sends back tasks for the client to do in XML format, such as drawing a widget. [20]

Criticism

The eyeOS team has also been criticized by Psychcf, the project maintainer of Psych Desktop, for censorship on their forums, and not acting like a true open source project[21].

eyeOS has also been criticized for it's poor scalability. Since the applications are executed on the server, and requests to the server are made every time a button is clicked, the server can quickly become overwhelmed when too many users are on the system at once[22]. On top of that, EyeOS uses flat XML files as opposed to a database server to store information, most likely to make it easy to install. However, large deployments of the software cannot take advantage of the optimizations a database server has to offer, causing the system to become even slower when many users are using the system at once[23].

See also

References

  1. ^ ZDNet Article About Web Operating Systems with eyeOS as example
  2. ^ SourceForge download page
  3. ^ eyeOS default applications from project's official SVN server
  4. ^ eyeOS Applications Community
  5. ^ OpenDesktop.org announces the eyeos-apps community
  6. ^ eyeOS - a Genuine Web OS by Linux.com
  7. ^ eyeOS | Web Desktop - Web OS - Web Office - your files and applications everywhere
  8. ^ Softpedia talks about eyeOS 1.0 release
  9. ^ eyeOS 1.0 launches - ReadWriteWeb
  10. ^ eyeOS 1.5 Released | eyeOS Professional Services available
  11. ^ What's coming in eyeOS 1.6 - eyeOS Blog
  12. ^ eyeOS : Review by SoftPedia
  13. ^ Yahoo! Web Revelation award of Technology
  14. ^ Yahoo! Web Releaton award of Technology in elPais newspaper
  15. ^ Webware 100 website
  16. ^ eyeOS Forums
  17. ^ eyeOS Wiki
  18. ^ eyeOS Applications Community
  19. ^ Softpedia eyeOS Applications Category
  20. ^ eyeOS Developers Community
  21. ^ It's official: eyeOS is a political nightmare
  22. ^ /dev/websphere: AJAX and its impact on servers
  23. ^ Designing for Scalability by Brian DeShong

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=EyeOS&oldid=206278298"